Youtube Archive of Recorded Organ Music

[jonadkins]

Archive of Recorded Organ Music

Plenty of treasures to be found here. Have just been enjoying Nicholas Danby from Lubeck/Eton and Nicolas Kynaston's peerless Dupre Deuxieme Symphonie from Westminster Cathedral.

 

611 subscribers

[philipmgwright]

In this excellent Archive, Jane Parker Smith playing Widor 6 first movement plus Franck and Vierne in 1981 shows her performances were energetic and fabulous!

a bench mark 40years on for current players?

[Hebridean]

I am very grateful to jonadkins for pointing me in the direction of this archive, which I did not previously know.  There are some really beautiful performances and I have so much enjoyed delving into the collection.  Thank you.

[Dr Nigel H Day]

Does anyone know who runs this YouTube channel ?

I have some old recordings which might be worth uploading, but I can't see any contact / messaging details for this channel on the YouTube page.

[carrick]

Glad I'm not the only person running a channel like this. It can be a lot of work, sometimes a little overwhelming!

[John Robinson]

What a very helpful source of recorded organ music.

[OwenTurner]

There's a suggestion in one of the YouTube comments that this set might soon disappear. That would be a great shame. If anyone has any influence then please apply it.

 

 

 

 

[Cromorne]

It's a fantastic YouTube channel, full of exceptional recordings, thanks for sharing.

We can also add the recordings of Pierre Cochereau, one of the greatest French organists, holder of the organ of Notre Dame de Paris. He recorded the greats Bach's Toccatas, the one in D minor at Notre Dame de Paris gives you chills with the 32" stops
 

 

[contraviolone]

That's quite an early recording by Pierre Cochereau though, before all the work carried out in the 1960s. I suppose from a historical perspective it is quite interesting, if only to prove that by the 1950s the organ was falling to pieces.

By far the best recording by Pierre Cochereau of BWV565 was made in 1973, on the Philips label. I have both the vinyl and CD recording of this performance, and for me this represents the pinnacle of PCs abilities as a performer, and also the very best of the Notre Dame de Paris organ before all the changes made in 1992:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ti8f0GIGw

[Cromorne]

20 hours ago, contraviolone said:

That's quite an early recording by Pierre Cochereau though, before all the work carried out in the 1960s. I suppose from a historical perspective it is quite interesting, if only to prove that by the 1950s the organ was falling to pieces.

By far the best recording by Pierre Cochereau of BWV565 was made in 1973, on the Philips label. I have both the vinyl and CD recording of this performance, and for me this represents the pinnacle of PCs abilities as a performer, and also the very best of the Notre Dame de Paris organ before all the changes made in 1992:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ti8f0GIGw

Yes, it's the organ before the addition of the awful synthesizer-sounding chamades. We have a very different point of view. 
Of course the organ needed restoration, but I prefer the Aristide Cavaillé-Coll smooth sound of the 60s version to the plastic sound of the 70s 🙂